The buyer will initially have to pay a sum of Rs 2,899 to purchase the phone.

Airtel, India's largest telecom service provider, today announced their partnership with Karbonn to bring affordable 4G smartphones to the market. Connectivity features like Bluetooth, WiFi, WiFi Hotspot are also present. The launch is part of the Airtel'sMera Pehla 4G Smartphone and the company will now partner with various smartphone manufacturers and will create an eco-system of affordable 4G phones.

Further, the smartphone will be available at leading mobile stores across the country. Airtel is however, upping the game by launching a 4G smartphone instead of just a 4G feature phone.

You'll thus get Rs 1500 back and render the effective price of the A40 Indian to be Rs 1399. Unlike JioPhone, the Airtel 4G Phone user can keep the device even after claiming the refund amount.

The minimum monthly recharge for the smartphone is set at Rs 169, which offers unlimited calling and 500MB 4G data per day.

But worry not. The Rs 169 recharge is not the only way to get the cash benefit. However, to claim the cash refund benefit, recharges worth Rs 3,000 must be done within the first 18 months (to claim the first refund installment of Rs 500) and another Rs 3,000 over the next 18 months (to claim the second refund installment of Rs 1,000). Under the hood, the device is powered by a 1.3 GHz unknown quad-core SoC, paired with 1 GB LPDDR3 RAM and 8 GB onboard flash storage with a dedicated micro SD card up to 32 GB. Besides, it also comes with Dual SIM slots inside which you can put SIM card of any network operator you wish to, unlike JioPhone which is locked to Jio's network.

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However, the biggest win that Airtel gets here is when it comes to the OS.

Coming to the specifications, the partnership aims to defy the price-vs-specs ratio as the A40 Indian is built around a 4-inch display, which bears a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels. The client will get a money discount of Rs 500 following 18 months and Rs. 1,000 following three years - taking the aggregate money advantage to Rs 1,500.

How cost structure of Airtel Karbonn A40 Indian pack works?

This Android-based 4G smartphone offers you a touchscreen with 4-inch display, unlike the Reliance JioPhone. And it's your call. Connectivity features include 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, and Global Positioning System. "This is yet another step in our ongoing journey to deeply understand customers and bring innovation that delights them", Raj Pudipeddi, Director - Consumer Business & CMO, Bharti Airtel, said in a statement. The Karbonn A40 Indian runs on Android Nougat and also has a dual-SIM slot.